I’m crossing off a lot of jobs while the sun shines – and it really is still shining, albeit for a shorter period each day, we’re on 10 hours and 21 minutes of daylight at the moment, and we’re losing almost 90 seconds a day.
Tasks that have been hanging over me for weeks, maybe even months have been completed, or at least begun. I’m not sure why. Just a period of Getting Things DoneTM, and while I really don’t understand the reasons behind it, I’m still embracing it.
I’ve even done some homemade soup and baked some homemade wholemeal bread for tonight’s dinner, which will definitely be after dark, given parental commitments. We might have a new driver in the household, but it’s still a steep learning curve between passing your test and heading out solo into the crazy world of Claremont Main Road at rush hour. We’ll get there.
In the background, I’m working on a weird and personal tale for an upcoming blog post, but it might be a) too personal and boring to publish, and b) too long to fit in a single post. More on that when (if) it comes. Save yourselves: don’t get excited.
Right. And now I have to put on my Big Boy Pants and brave that very same Claremont Main Road.
Popped into a few shops on a whirlwind tour of a local mall this morning. Here’s what I was serenaded with while I was there. (Just in case you want to make a playlist of limp, middle-of-the-road, inoffensive, nothing songs.) (Please don’t.)
Clicks Something Got Me Started – Simply Red [advert for adult nappies] Letters – Watershed
PicknPay The Living Years – Mike & The Mechanics No Regrets – Robbie Williams End Of The Road – Boyz II Men [all merchandisers to the manager’s desk, please] Speed Of Sound – Coldplay
Woolies She Will Be Loved – Maroon 5 The Shape Of You – Ed Sheeran Mama – Spice Girls
An absolute maximum of 1/9 for me there (ok, 2/10 if you include the nappy ad), and only that because Neils Hannon and Tennant sang backing vocals for Robbie Williams. I presume that each song is aimed specifically at the likely demographic visiting any given store (this doesn’t make me feel great about myself). And obviously they’ll be vetted for content and tempo. I mean, I would love if they popped a bit of Slipknot on occasionally, but obviously it’s not going to end well for the tannies in the bakery queue when the whole bread aisle turns into a trolley-filled mosh pit.
News from Chez Seasons today is that Winter is knackered after all its hard work last Friday, when it chucked 30mm of wet nastiness our way.
Apparently, a leave form was submitted and approved late on Friday evening, and thus, Winter will not be in this week.
Look, while every employee is entitled to annual leave under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act [No. 75 of 1997], it’s really awkward that Winter has chosen the busiest time to not come in for the next seven days.
And quite why its line manager (presumably God or some other pencil-necked desk jockey?) chose to ok it is a little beyond me.
Still. Not my business to be telling other deities what to do. Not my circus, not my monkeys, not my problem.
Obviously lots of social media stuff about the Borealis version on the internet today. Bucket list stuff in your back garden. I think the biggest losers in all this are the Norwegian Tourist Board. Apparently, the Australis one might be out and about again tonight.
“You’re on social media, 6000. Aren’t you outraged?”
I am getting a lot of people asking if I am upset over the DA TV advert which in which they – and I hope you’re sitting down for this – depicted the SA flag being burned.
Well, they actually depicted a poorly-done CGI SA flag being burned. But same same, right?
Here’s the ad. I hope you’re ready.
Well, no. I’m not outraged, and I’m not outraged for many reasons.
First off, I don’t tend to get outraged about things anymore. You get to a stage in life when you realise that the energy you spend on being outraged is completely wasted. And the earlier you reach that stage in your life, the happier you will be. Sure, get irritated, annoyed, maybe even tinker with being briefly furious. But then drop it. Because expending more effort than that – especially publicly – on something you can’t change, makes you look like a buffoon. So much bluster, so little outcome.
Of course, it’s really easy to be outraged on social media, where we can all hide behind our profile pictures and pseudonyms and tell people how what they must think. But that’s even more pointless. Honestly, who is really going to listen to some nasty words formed from pixels?
And right there is the second reason. This isn’t a burning flag. It’s just some pixels. And if you’re willing to say that those pixels are the same thing as burning a real flag, then you should really be able to understand that the “burning flag” (pixels) here is merely a metaphor for the state of the country should the ANC go into a coalition with the EFF and the MK after the election. Is it an accurate metaphor? I don’t know, but that’s actually immaterial. The DA feel that it’s an accurate way to describe the consequences of that alliance, and this is their advert. And whether or not the advert is accurate or crap is also immaterial. The outrage here isn’t over the words or the sentiment. It’s all about the “burning flag”.
What it has done is fanned the flames (no pun intended) of the electoral fire (no pun intended). Has it influenced anyone either way? Probably very few. But probably also both ways. If it was meant to get people to watch it, it’s worked. If it was meant to rile the ANC, it’s also worked.
That statement by Zizi Kodwa, Minster for Sports, Arts and Culture, there. You may recognise him from such news stories as:
But oh no… someone did a nasty thing to the flag. Well, some pixels that looked like the flag.
How convenient.
Thirdly(?), It’s interesting to note that while there are several laws pertaining to the illegality of corruption in public office, there doesn’t appear to be anything saying whether you can or can’t burn the flag (which the DA didn’t do, anyway). Here’s Government Notice No. 510 of 8th June 2001 (Gazette no 22356) (catchy title, catchy contents):
The fourth thing is that outrage on social media is hugely selective. Polarised along racial, political, national, sports team or whatever other lines. Any opportunity to bash the other side is gleefully taken. People readily jump onto the bandwagon: there is comfort in numbers and camaraderie. There is admiration to be earned in being one of the people that was outraged at this or that thing that happened. But outrage is often also hypocritical. I’ve seen 100x more posts and tweets from people upset with the “burning flag” ad than I have over the actual footage of a government minister driving past shacks in his Mercedes G-Wagon, throwing ANC t-shirts onto the floor for poor people to pick up.
But do a bit of editing with a video of a flame and a CGI flag in Microsoft Moviemaker and… ah Jesus…
Of course, above all else, we should always remember that social media is not real life. Much as Jessica’s life isn’t one constant beach holiday, no matter what her Facebook feed might suggest, nor is anyone going to grab their torches and pitchforks and head to the DA HQ over this.
Well, I say that. They might, but if they do, much like the letter above, it will all be as a cunning stunt by one of the other allegedly outraged parties to try and score some points.
I guess what I am saying here is not to rush to be outraged by anything – especially in this election season. They’re absolutely out to get your emotions and people are falling for it every single time. You have nothing tangible to gain, and so much energy and effort to lose. Rather focus on the bigger picture and don’t be distracted. Look at the facts, examine the manifestos, check out the track records and consider the alternatives.
But don’t lose sleep over some pixels in an advert. Really.
